Sand Pirates In Indonesia
Slowly, the natural features of our solar system disappear, thanks to the Better Building Conglomerates.
(re: Alfred Bester, 3/28/2010 )

Scanner Could Let You 'Rip' Books
If this device could be commercialized, you could 'rip' a book like you can rip a CD, digitizing its contents for easy storage on your computer.
(re: Vernor Vinge, 3/19/2010 )

Laser Fusion Test Successful
Successful test at National Ignition Facility shows that laser-plasma interactions may not be a problem in the pursuit of thermonuclear fusion.
(re: Robert A. Metzger, 2/13/2010 )

Europa May Support Life
Is there life on Europa? SF author Arthur C. Clarke popularized the idea in a book and a subsequent movie. There is a liquid ocean - but is there enough oxygen?
(re: Arthur C. Clarke, 10/15/2009 )

Self-Healing Circuits For Cellphones?
This may just help alleviate one of the most terrible feelings you can have in modern times - the way you feel when you drop your cellphone or other expensive digital device.
(re: Various, 9/11/2009 )

Geoengineering To Mitigate Climate Change
This policy statement focuses on large-scale efforts to geoengineer the climate system to counteract the consequences of increasing greenhouse gas emissions.
(re: John Jacob Astor IV, 7/23/2009 )

Cleaning Up Chernobyl With Beets
Another interesting scheme to try to cut the amount of time that tens of thousands of kilometers of countryside must lay fallow due to radioactive fallout.
(re: Gregory Benford, 6/28/2009 )

Saser - Sonic Equivalent Of Laser
It appears that this is the first working prototype of a device long theorized; it is the first device to produce coherent sound waves in the terahertz frequency range
(re: Gene Roddenberry, 6/19/2009 )

Flame Jet Drill To Bore 10 Miles Into Our Planet
Didn't I see this done from orbit in the last Star Trek movie? Take a look a the video of a prototype device that can drill quickly and efficiently in search of geothermal power.
(re: Gene Roddenberry, 6/14/2009 )

RF Cochlea Chip 'Seashell Radio'
This unique device draws on the marvelous human ear for its capabilities, which can be described as a 'universal or cognitive radio' much faster than any existing RF spectrum analyzer.
(re: Ray Bradbury, 6/4/2009 )

Water Purity Detection In Real Time
'Will someone try chaumurky tonight - poison in the drink?' Not if Professor Katzir has anything to say about it.
(re: Frank Herbert, 5/22/2009 )

Brush Up On Star Trek Tech Made Real
So much Star Trek technology has been brought into being - at least partly - that I'm wondering what new worlds are left to conquer, technologywise, in the new Star Trek movie.
(re: Gene Roddenberry, 5/7/2009 )

Flexpeaker Paper Thin Speakers
Can you imagine a movie poster - that plays the movie soundtrack - right off the surface of the flat paper movie poster? Well, get to work on it. With video.
(re: Larry Niven, 4/28/2009 )

Power Generating Shoe Instructions
Don't let the power from walking go to waste - start gathering up that energy now with these DIY parasitic power harvesting shoes.
(re: Frank Herbert, 4/27/2009 )

Face Mining Star Trek For Kirk, 7-Eleven For You
Face mining and facial recognition are getting some real face time with their fans on the Internet. Take a look at what Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition has been up to.
(re: Joseph E. Kelleam, 4/26/2009 )

Conductive Bodypaint Skin Circuitry
Why carry a cell phone or other electronic device when you can be the device? Also makes electronics prototyping easier.
(re: Various, 4/19/2009 )

Arm Swing Authentication For Mobile Phones
A unique bit of biometric data you didn't even know you had will authenticate users of mobile devices. Just don't stand near people opening their phones.
(re: Douglas Adams, 4/17/2009 )

SolarEn To Sell Satellite Solar Power
This idea has been kicked around by sf authors for several generations. Has the time for SBSP (space-based solar power) finally come?
(re: Clifford Simak, 4/15/2009 )

Kindle 2 Reads Aloud, As SF Writers Predicted
The idea of a mechanized 'book reader' or 'news reader' has been around for more than 100 years; take a look at the imaginative works of five sf writers.
(re: Stanislaw Lem, 2/13/2009 )

That's Mr. Gasification, Not Mr. Fusion
Take a look at a cool video showing a real-life version of a car that runs on miscellaneous bits of trash. Just like in the movies. Almost.
(re: Various, 1/6/2009 )

Intel Wireless Power Transmission
Wireless transmission of power inflamed the imaginations of early twentieth century sf writers; Intel appears to have improved the efficiency of a basic technique.
(re: John W. Campbell, 8/22/2008 )

Solar-Hydrogen House Is Energy Independent
This story about America's first solar-hydrogen residence is still good; the owner is energy-independent in a way that most of us can only envy.
(re: Clifford Simak, 8/6/2008 )

Use Roads As Solar Energy Collectors
Interesting system started out as a study on how to make roads more sustainable, with less maintenance. Passive solar heating is a bonus (other examples also covered).
(re: Various, 1/2/2008 )

Virtual Fence To Be Tested This Month
A virtual barrier between the US and Mexico is being tested; the glitches that stopped this Boeing product from being complete last summer have been fixed.
(re: Robert Heinlein, 10/21/2007 )

Could Lightning Power Generators?
If this works, I'm going to festoon my house with lightning rods, and then sell the power back to DTE.
(re: Steven Spielberg, 10/16/2007 )

Robot Parking In Fact and In Fiction
Okay, George Jetson had a car that folded into a briefcase; but you can take your car to NYC and have the robot garage park it for you in real life.
(re: Robert Heinlein, 2/3/2007 )

HAL-5 Exoskeleton To Carry Mountain Climber
Exoskeletons helped humans raised in microgravity over come Earth's gravity in a 1968 novel; now they help people overcome gravity on Earth in real life.
(re: Fritz Leiber, 4/4/2006 )

NASA Strategy For Urban Heat island NYC
NASA has strategies to help small urban heat islands like NYC. Who can help a species with a 'planet' heat island? Larry Niven, that's who.
(re: Larry Niven, 2/9/2006 )

3D Holographic Images And Heinlein's Stereovision Tank
Harold Garner and his research team have used a gel-filled tank and a Texas Instruments Digital Light Processing (DLP) Digital Micromirror Device (DMD) to generate dynamic three-dimensional views from holograms.
(re: Robert Heinlein, 6/21/2005 )

Breathe Like A Fish Thanks To Alan Bodner
Alan Izhar-Bodner, an Israeli inventor, has developed a way for divers to breathe underwater without cumbersome oxygen tanks. His apparatus makes use of the air that is dissolved in water, just like fish do.
(re: Various, 6/1/2005 )

Flexible Fabric Speakers Are Coming
A Korean research firm has announced that it has developed a technology for the mass production of sound speakers that are as flexible as fabric.
(re: Bruce Sterling, 5/1/2005 )

New Phase Of Ice May Exist
A new phase of ice may exist at temperatures between 4 degrees Kelvin to 50 degrees Kelvin, at high pressures, according to researchers at the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center.
(re: Kurt Vonnegut, 4/20/2005 )

RepRap: Self-Replicating Rapid Prototyping
A self-replicating, rapid prototyping machine developed at the University of Bath in England could transform the nature of manufacturing. People could produce everyday household objects in their own homes and put them together.
(re: Philip K. Dick, 3/25/2005 )

Niven's 'Black Power' Now Available In Infrared
A team lead by University of Toronto scientist Ted Sargent has created a sprayable plastic composite that could harvest as much as thirty percent of the solar power that strikes a surface.
(re: Larry Niven, 1/10/2005 )

Data Mining In Three Dimensions
Graphical representation of information is not new; the first graphs appeared in the late eighteenth century. More recently, Sandia National Laboratories has created a data mining and visualization software suite that is able to accept information fr
(re: William Gibson, 7/12/2004 )

Super-Photons Used For Good, Not Evil
Super-photons may be able to provide a way to encode yet more information on CDs; more powerful computers and higher data security may also be possible. This is not your father's Thessian super-proton technology.
(re: John W. Campbell, 5/19/2004 )

Talking Washing Machines Are More Accessible
New washing machines are starting to look, well, more modern, with LCD displays and smooth, easy-to-clean panels. Unfortunately, that makes appliances much more difficult to use for people with vision problems, who would prefer large knobs.
(re: William Gibson, 5/18/2004 )

Global Water Crisis
An excellent article from The Scientist provides excellent details about the global water crisis, and some possible solutions.
(re: Frank Herbert, 5/11/2004 )

Extreme 2003: Hydrothermal Vent Grind
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is hosting students from around the world on a 23-day research expedition to the Pacific Ocean floor: Extreme 2003 - To the Depths of Discovery.
(re: Peter Watts, 12/8/2003 )

Bush Signs Nanotech R&D Act
At 2:10 P.M. EST this afternoon, President Bush is scheduled to sign the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act into law.
(re: Philip K. Dick, 12/3/2003 )